The violent hate crimes against the Asian American community have exponentially increased during the past year. Asian Americans continue to be targeted by their fellow citizens and it is time to help lift their voices and speak out against the racism that is threatening their community.
The attacks against Asian Americans have again progressed over the past couple of months. Various incidents have occurred like: March 12, when two young Chinese American women were killed and dragged by a car in Lakewood, March 16, when a 21-year-old white man shot and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian-American women in Atlanta, and several other incidents of people purposely attacking Asian elders on the sidewalk.
While it is no shocker that there are those who have a racist bias against another minority group, the racism against the Asian American community has stayed undercover.
According to a New York Times article, there have been 3,800 reports of hate incidents targeting Asian-Americans since last March.
However, these constant violent attacks on the Asian American community are not a new thing. These racially motivated attacks have been going on for years but have not been documented.
The reason being, according to this NPR article, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders frequently underreport hate incidents because they “feel intimidated by law enforcement or are afraid of being seen as overly sensitive.” Those who do report the racially motivated attacks are often filed as generic offenses and tend to not show up in hate crimes national data.
These attacks against the Asian American community have only gotten worse, especially since the pandemic started.
The former cheeto-puff baby and president, Donald J. Trump has been calling the COVID-19 virus the “Chinese Virus.” This harmful, racist statement circulated and his cult has not only chanted these words and made merchandise out of them but used them to further hate and place blame on Asian Americans, whether or not they are Chinese.
The “model minority” stereotype was imposed on all Asian Americans in order to uphold the hatred, stereotypes and bigoted remarks against other minorities.
However, Americans tend to forget that this stereotype not only harms other minorities but Asian Americans as well because it disregards their own struggles and the hatred towards their community.
While others tend to forget or ignore the racism against Asian Americans and discredit their struggles, others acknowledge and speak out against these recent attacks and respond against them.
Many people in this country have mourned and continue to mourn the lives that were taken these past several weeks and strive to make things better for the Asian American community.
A change has to be made by all communities. We all have to unite and work closely together to protect one another, especially other minorities.
The Latino, African American and Asian American communities have all suffered from discrimination and racial hate crimes time after time again and it must end.
During the last couple of days since these incidents, there have been multiple protests all over the country from Denver, San Francisco and Atlanta. One of the biggest protests was in the Atlanta Korean church congregation.
These “Stop Asian Hate” protests are to bring awareness and attention to the violence and discriminating hatred against their community who, just like everyone else, are trying to survive.
It is time to participate and protect our Asian American brothers and sisters and help them stand strong to fight this battle that they have been fighting on their own for way too long.
Not only for them but for other communities of color who are standing up for themselves.
